One of the fascinating ideological debates in a settlement is whether to employ Palestinian workers in building a settlement or an outpost, so the land can be claimed as fast as possible. Those supporting the hiring of Palestinians believe it is best to take hold of the land quickly, so it can be redeemed quickly. The opponents argue it is best to promote spiritual values, which will lead to redemption.

However, steps taken by the Palestinian Authority in its war against the settlements may make the debate irrelevant. The PA has been burning goods produced in settlements, and now there is a proposal to ban Palestinians from working in settlements.

The settlement economy is mostly based on Palestinian labor. Palestinians not permitted to work in Israel are given such permits for the settlements. There are exceptions: Itzhar and Kfar Tapuah, for example, insist on Jewish labor. Otherwise, Palestinians can be seen working in nearly every settlement.

Based on data Israel delivered to donor states in September 2009, some 22,000 Palestinians have permits to work in settlements or in their industrial zones. However, various non-governmental organizations, like Kav La'Oved-Worker's Hotline for the Protection of Worker's Rights, say another 10,000 Palestinians work without permits, mostly as seasonal farm hands. In addition, inside the Green Line, an additional 26,000 Palestinians have work permits.

The total number of Palestinians employed in settlements and in Israel constitutes 9.9 percent of employed West Bank Palestinians.

One of those employing Palestinians is Yossi Kreuf, who has a workshop for woodwork and marble work in the settlement of Ma'ale Shomron. He has one permanent Palestinian employee and hires others as projects become available. "The heads of the Palestinian Authority want to cause a third intifada," says Kreuf. "The minute Palestinians do not enter the settlements, there will be a bunch of people who have nothing to eat and they will begin rioting," Kreuf told Haaretz. "In my community alone, 150-200 [Palestinians] are employed in construction. The worker employed by me tells me that the nation of Israel is the Chosen People, and that if there was no nation of Israel, they [the Palestinians] would be buried today," Kreuf adds.

According to the Ma'ale Shomron settler, "they say that if they worked only in the PA, they would starve to death." Kreuf says he would propose a counter-law to the PA proposal, that no product from the PA could be imported to Israel. "Then we will see how they like that," said Kreuf.

In the area of the Gush Etzion regional council, 1,000 Palestinians are employed permanently - and this is a period in which there is not much development.

The head of the local council, Shaul Goldstein, supports the employment of Palestinians. The new policy of the PA drives him mad. "I call this the optometrist approach - that means that with this approach they will finally open the eyes of the world, which will recognize what their [the Palestinians] real aim is. They have no aim to make peace. I had a meeting with one of the clan heads in the nearby villages, to see how we can cooperate, and they are afraid of the PA that wants to terrorize them. It drives me mad and angers me. [PA Prime Minister] Salam Fayyad, the allegedly moderate man, is the one who is burning products from the settlements and is promoting such policies," Goldstein says.

For the past four months, PA inspectors have taken confiscated settlement-made products to a storehouse in Salafit. Fayyad has taken photographs setting products ablaze.

In essence, this is a revival of an old campaign formula. The left-wing Gush Shalom group has been advertising for years a list of factories in the West Bank, and international organizations have set up Web sites asking the public to point out the existence of other factories in settlements.

The industrial zones are the soft underbelly of settlements, where rented spaces for businesses provide tax revenues for them. Overall in the West Bank there are 10 large industrial areas, and a similar number of smaller areas.

The biggest industrial area is in Mishor Adumim, with some 170 businesses operating there, including a winery, laundry service for hospitals in Jerusalem, a factory for spices and dry goods, a metal workshop, print shops, etc.

Another large industrial area is Barkan, where more than 100 factories cover an area of 1,300 dunams. One that is expanding is that of Ariel West. Ahva Ahdut invested NIS 35 million recently in a new plant for the production of tahini and halva.

The boycott of the products produced in the settlements is affecting revenues. The Lipski Factory, in the Barkan industrial area, is owned by Keter Plastics and the Fimi fund. They manufacture various plumbing and sanitation items. Twenty percent of their products are sold to the PA through a large Hebron-based business. During the last weeks the goods were repeatedly confiscated, and the customers stopped buying.

The PA went as far as to issue a leaflet showing photographs of the products that should be boycotted. "I am not here because I am a settler and not because I think that we should not evacuate [settlements] in a peace agreement," says Yehuda Cohen, who manages the company. "Every person living in the Middle East wishes they had my factory. I have 35 Palestinian employees who get all their social benefits. I send them to Amman on holiday. There are products in the PA that compete with ours, but I have a larger segment of the market than they do because of our quality," Cohen says.

"During the past two and a half months, we stopped selling. Yesterday, a customer who had bought a long time ago was given permission to sell the stock, but an inspector came in and confiscated all the goods. We managed to get the goods brought back to the factory. I recently began firing Palestinians, and I intend to let go of more. I hope that Keter Plastics will help me export more to their markets [abroad]. I am not telling you that I will leave tomorrow. But there is a board above me, and they can decide."

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"..see Gaza, post-disengagement where they destroyed what was left by Israel"
Sorry to burst your balloon http://wp.me/PDB7k-Y#Gaza-greenhouses
"also see the land of Palestine pre-zionism, and the difference of lands held at the time belonging to Jews vs. Arabs)"
Twaddle. The development of the area paralleled development in many similar regions through the advance of irrigation technology, advances in agriculture, post war investment. In fact, it's identical to the riverland areas of Australia.

had a right to become Jordanian. Those folk who weren't, were Palestinians until 1948, when some became Israeli. Post '48 those still in what remained of the non-state entity of Palestine are Palestinians. They have no right to become Jordanian unless they immigrate. I'm guessing they'd rather stay on their home turf though, just like many of those Palestinians who're now Israeli's.

"Read it and weep"!
Look at some of the comments made in the article, it is not enough to blockade the Gaza Strip, now it is advocated that Palestinians can be coerced into working in the settlements because their alternative is starvation!
How has it come to this, Jews who have forgotten their own history wanting to use starvation to obtain labour?
Shameful, not only the comments made, but worse is the failure to speak out against such sentiments!

So called "settlers" are not the problem, the problem is that the enemies of Israel refuse to accept Israel today or in the past. The enemies of Israel will not stop till Israel no longer exists. Please listen to their own words not mine.

In all the 22 Arab countries, nobody has developed even one manufactured product of quality that has made it to the world market. Not one. Oil, olive wood carving and cheap greasy soap do not count. Quality. Manufactured Product.
It is not surprising that Pals who value productivity and purpose come to the Jews for work. Why would anyone want to hurt this? They are only hurting the Pals.

As the article says Palestinians have their own factories. If the bigger market segment is because of quality its a decision by Palestinian customers. Thats somehow more democratic than confiscations, isn't it? Working skills stay with the worker, unimportant if the factory owners are Jews, Muslims or Atheists, don't they? As I remember from some years ago Israel forced it citizens to leave Gaza, when the decision was made. Why not leaving all to final decisions in treaties instead of making people's lives harder by this or that measure?

"This has been going on for at least 200 years in the Middle East. Look at the census numbers. They only moved where the jobs were."
It doesn't actually show any such notion.
Statistics show there was movement in many populations in many regions of the world in the same period.
"Let them look to their capital of Amman for jobs"
Why are you attempting to propagate this completely ignorant notion..
http://wp.me/PDB7k-Y#Palestinian-state-in-Jordan
" Cancel Palestine. Create Peace."
Cancel your attitude/s and you'll have peace. (very likely you'll be less miserable)

and great sacrifice not to stop struggling when you are in the hands of a strangler trying to squeeze the life out of you. The Palestinians are demonstrating they will put their lives on the line to protest the indignities heaped on them by the occupation. Bless them one and all.

Freedom requires sacrifice. Palestinians want freedom rather than serfdom. Why should the Palestinians be satisfied with the paltry trickle-down of money from foreign settlers taking their land and livelihoods?
It is better to be free and enjoy the full benefits of one's own land and industry. Temporary hardships are tolerable if there is light at the end of the tunnel promising freedom.

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